All over the bush, on every branch, hundreds of these.
Worker bee on a sticky shaft.
Exquisite workmanship at every bloom. She outdoes herself.
The blooms of dill are lovely in life,
are changed but, in death, undiminished.
Smile at the sun smiling,
and filter every ugly thing.
Pure love, immutable, golden.
Tabled motion in the parliament of flowers.
Above the orchard about a hundred yards, history barks a lesson.
The big trunk was a chestnut brought down by blight.
The little trunk was second growth, brought low by blight’s grandson.
Blight too shall pass.
Nothing beside remains.
Hunks of trunk at the root.
All the branches have become brush
after a hundred seasons of blossom and fruit.
A little sadness for the loss of shade and loss of keeper apples,
and loss of the bird staging arena of limbs and twigs.
But a hundred-year reign is a fruit-tree jubilee.
Blessed be.